1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to integrated circuits and, more particularly, to integrated circuits having voltage regulator circuits generating a power supply voltage from an external power supply voltage.
2. Relevant Background
Integrated circuits (ICs) comprise thousands or millions of individual devices interconnected to provide desired functionality. Significant effort is expended to improve processing techniques so as to reduce the size of each individual device in order to provide greater functionality on a given IC chip at reduced cost. In general, smaller geometry devices operate faster while dissipating less power than do larger geometry devices. As device geometries are reduced the breakdown voltages of the devices and the isolation that separates the devices decreases also.
Electronic systems usually comprise ICs manufactured with a variety of technologies. This has created a need for multiple power supply voltages to be supplied to a single printed circuit board to support the various types of devices on that board. For example, devices are available that require power supply voltages ranging from 5.0 volts to 3.3 volts, 2.8 volts or lower. A practical solution to this disparity is to provide voltage regulator circuitry that decreases the higher voltage (e.g., 5.0V in the above example) to the lower voltage required by the small geometry device (e.g., 3.3 V or 2.8V). Hence, it is necessary to regulate the available power supply voltage to provide voltages consistent with that required by each of the small geometry ICs.
A conventional voltage regulator is designed to generate a lower voltage than the available supply voltage. Typically, a transistor is coupled in series between the external voltage node and the internal voltage supply node. The conductivity of the transistor is modulated to drop the excess voltage across the transistor. Linear regulators have many desirable characteristics such as simplicity, low output ripple, high quality line and load regulation, and fast recovery time. However, linear regulators are inefficient resulting in wasted power and excess heat generation.
Switching regulators, including ripple regulators, are becoming more common because of their characteristic high efficiency and high power density (i.e., power-to-volume ratio) resulting from smaller magnetic, capacitive, and heat sink components. Switching regulators indirectly regulate an average DC output voltage by selectively storing energy by switching energy on and off in an inductor. By comparing the output voltage to a reference voltage the inductor current is controlled to provide the desired output voltage.
Switching regulators exhibit longer hold-up times than linear regulators which is a characteristic that is important in computer applications. Switching regulators accept a wider range of input voltages with little effect on efficiency making them particularly useful in battery powered applications. However, peak-to-peak output voltage ripple of a switching regulator is typically greater than that of linear regulators. Also, ripple regulators have an initial accuracy (i.e., accuracy immediately after a load current change) error because the average output voltage value is indirectly regulated. Ripple regulators are also susceptible to instabilities due to noise coupling, especially when the power switches within the main power topology are being turned on and/or off. Hence, significant development effort is directed at reducing the voltage ripple of switching regulators.
To limit undesirable voltage ripple on the internal voltage supply node, the time constant of the regulator is desirably much longer than the internal cycle of the loading device. This prevents undesired voltage ripple within a cycle that can upset analog voltage levels. One way of controlling ripple is to heavily filter the regulator output by coupling a large capacitor between the internal voltage supply node and ground. In practice, however, filter capacitors consume a great deal of area without adding functionality. Cost and circuit size considerations dictate limiting the filter capacitor to more modest sizes. Hence, it is desirable to minimize voltage ripple in ways that do not require large filter capacitors.
Another technique to minimize ripple is to use a hysteretic comparator to compare the output voltage to a reference voltage. The hysteretic comparator output drives a switching transistor that controls current in the inductor. However, it is difficult to generate accurate hysteresis as well as provide the ability to program the hysteresis using off-chip components. One prior solution is to use a Schmidtt trigger with an amplifier/comparator having an output and a non-inverting input brought out to pins of the IC. Although this allows the user to program the hysteresis by connecting the external feedback resistor, in many cases, the internal resistor that defines the hysteresis cannot be connected externally because the reference voltage used is not allocated a pin. Although this limitation can be overcome by bringing the reference voltage out to a pin of the IC, this solution degrades the system's noise performance as well as raises the cost to manufacture the device. Moreover, the load capacitance created by the pins is significant making the design more complex in addition to degrading overall performance device.
One prior solution uses one comparator with regenerative feedback with the amount of feedback set by two resistors. In these circuits, the reference voltage (V.sub.REF) must be adjusted each time the ripple or hysteresis voltage is adjusted in order to keep the average output voltage (V.sub.OUT) constant. Another solution uses a long comparator propagation delay in the order of 500 nanosecond and additional pre-filtering to discriminate noise coupling during the switching intervals of the main power transistors. However, long propagation delays and over filtering result in errors in setting the ripple voltage of component of V.sub.OUT especially when the DC/DC converter is operated at high switching frequencies (i.e., greater than about 100 KHz).